I am the new Engineering Manager …..and you are?” The employee will respond by saying something like “Hi, I’m Brian Adams, a welder.”
Explain the Reason for Your Conversation
Be clear about the reason for your conversation. For example:
- “Can we spend some time talking about the safety on this job, please?”
- “Can I ask you to stop what you are doing for a few minutes so that we can talk about safety?”
Remember: your choice of words needs to match the education/maturity level of the employee. For example, when engaging with a semi-literate employee who has only recently joined your business unit, it may not be appropriate to say “Can we do a safety interaction together please?” In general, avoid using overly technical or complex jargon.
Equally important, you should not make excuses or be defensive about your request to talk about safety – this will dilute the impact of the topic and the employee will not take the interaction as seriously as he/she should. For example, don’t say “I know that you are very busy, but all that I need is a quick moment to talk about safety – I promise you it won’t take very long.” This approach will set the wrong tone for the rest of the conversation.
Understand the Work Being Done (Context)
- Before specifically discussing the safety elements relating to the job, you need to gain a broad understanding of the job being done – this provides the context for the safety discussion that follows in the next step. To obtain the required information, ask questions such as:
- “Can you please walk me through the job you’re doing?”
- “What’s the purpose of the work you are doing?”+
- “What’s the job you’re doing?”
Discuss the Safety Aspects of the Job
Typical questions to ask include:
- “Did you carry out a pre-task hazard assessment?”
- “What are the hazards associated with this job?”
- “What risk assessment process did you use before starting this job?”
- “What is the safety issues associated with this job?”
- “What preparation did you do to help you do this job safely?”
- “For this particular job, do you require any special PPE?”
Note: this is a critical step in the safety interaction. It should take the form of a natural two-way conversation (caring, engaging, communicating, connecting and coaching) and not a rigid question-and-answer session. Most importantly, remember to praise the employee for good safety practices – acknowledgement, recognition and positive feedback are essential elements in the safety interaction. Following are some examples of positive feedback:
- “I notice that you’ve do ne a very comprehensive risk assessment. That’s great.”
- “That’s a good safety practice. Thanks for working safely.”
- “You’re wearing all the required PPE and it’s all in good shape. You set a nice example for the other welders.”
- “I see you’ve identified that in your risk assessment. That’s good.”
- “I like the way you ….. That’s a good idea.”
Positive feedback is a powerful tool for reinforcing safe behaviour. Remember that – to have the right impact – praise and positive feedback should always be sincere and genuine.
Besides the immediate feedback given during the safety interaction, there can also be further positive feedback (e.g. through publishing names and positive incidents in bulletins, and giving awards) where appropriate.
- Ask for Safety Improvement Suggestions
- Although the employee is working safely, it is important – in the context of continuous improvement – to explore ways of making the job and work environment even safer. Typically, this will commence by asking the employee for safety improvement suggestions. Often, the leader will then add his/her own insights and knowledge, thus making the improvement suggestions even more powerful.
- Once again, positive feedback (“I think that’s an excellent suggestion!”) can play a very important role.
- Note: Complacency is one of the “big sins” of safety. Even if we have a “good” safety record, we should never be satisfied with our safety performance – in line with our goal of achieving Zero fatalities, we should always strive for further improvement. This is one of the important messages that need to be conveyed during the VFL process.
Safety Intervention
Stop the Activity in a Safe Manner
You have observed that the employee is working unsafely; following from this, your immediate task – as a safety leader – is to stop the activity in a safe manner. For example, the employee may be climbing down a flight of stairs with a huge and heavy box in his hands, and the size and shape of the box is such that it is severely obstructing his/her vision. Shouting loudly to the person from a distance may cause him/her to get a fright, and then drop the box on the feet, with potentially dangerous consequences – this, clearly, would not be the right thing to do. General guidelines in a situation such as this would be:
- As the safety leader, ensure that any action on your part does not make the situation more unsafe.
- Make sure that you – unwittingly – do not release the safety hazard.
- Conduct a rapid, yet thorough, risk assessment, and then act quickly to stop the unsafe act.
- Any actions on your part should not give the employee a fright, startle or throw him/her off balance. In other words, do not introduce an element of surprise.
- The leader’s tone of voice (calm yet deliberate), and specific actions to assist the employee, are very important.
In the above example the safety leader would approach the employee, catch his/her attention in a calm and non-surprising way and say something like: “I’m sure you can’t see where you are going – let me help you put the box down.” The focus will then be on assisting the employee to put the box down on the (level) ground in a safe manner.
Brief Introductions; Identify What the Employee was Doing Unsafely
Introduce yourself (briefly) if you don’t know the employee – “Hello, I’m John Smith, the new Engineering Manager ….. and you are?” The employee will then respond by saying (for example): “I am Brian Adams. I’ve just joined the mine as an apprentice boilermaker.”
- These introductions should not be long and drawn out. The idea is to get to the identification of– and discussion about – the unsafe act as soon as possible.
- The leader is usually tempted to immediately point out what the employee was doing unsafely. Rather, ask the employee what he/she thinks he/she was doing unsafely – in terms of the learning that takes place, and the embedding of that learning, this approach has a greater impact. A short discussion will then take place. Most importantly, at the end of this discussion it should be very clear to the employee what he/she was doing unsafely.
- Note that the tone of the safety intervention needs to be firm and forceful, with the leader conveying a strong message about safety. Importantly, it should not be too friendly (smiling, grinning from the leader) as this will dilute the seriousness of the safety message, and the learning that takes place. Equally important, the leader should not adopt an aggressive or threatening tone – this will not achieve the desired result. Even though the employee was working in an unsafe way, the leader should still deal with the employee in a respectful, professional and positive manner.
- Leader: “If you lost the use of an eye, or both eyes for that matter, what could possibly happen to you?”
- Employee: “I may lose my job – that’s what happened to my cousin. I will no longer be able to earn a living. It’s not a very nice picture.”
- Leader: “And what would that mean?”
- Employee: “I am no longer able to support my family. That would be disastrous.”
In the above example, the leader got the employee to realise the consequences of not wearing safety spectacles – he made the impact direct and personal, and this had the desired effect.
After discussing with the employee the possible consequences of the unsafe act, one needs to discuss safer ways to do the job.
The context for this could inter alia be one or more of the following:
- Using the right PPE when required.
- Ensuring that tools and equipment are properly maintained.
- Having the appropriate tools and equipment.
- Using tools and equipment in a safe manner.
- Ensuring that housekeeping issues are in good order (cleanliness; neatness).
- In a broad sense, making sure that there is compliance with all organisational and statutory safety requirements.
This part of the discussion could, for example, be initiated with the following question:
“How do you think that this task can be done more safely?”
Importantly, the discussion on safer ways to do the job should conclude with real, specific and practical solutions/options, as opposed to vague and fuzzy concepts or ideas.
Get Employee’s Commitment to Work Safely in Future
An important part of a safety intervention is to get the employee to commit to work safely in the future. This commitment needs to be firm and explicit – this will increase the likelihood that the employee does not repeat the unsafe act. The leader will say something like “Based on our discussion, what do you commit to do differently in the future?” Typically, the employee’s response will be as follows:
- “I commit to working safely in the future. I will go to the store-room and get new safety spectacles as soon as our discussion is over.”
- “I promise to work safely in the future. From now on I will take safety more seriously.”
- “From now on, when I walk up or down stairs, I will apply the principle of three-point contact – thanks for reminding me.”
Sometimes, for the sake of emphasis and to help entrench an important safety issue, the leader may repeat a point or ask the same question in a different way.
Besides getting a commitment to change behaviour, specific actions may also be required on the part of the employee – there must be clear agreement in this regard. For example:
- In the above-mentioned example, the employee is required to obtain new safety spectacles.
- The safety intervention may highlight the need for the employee to do refresher training on a particular aspect of safety e.g. using a safety harness when working at heights.
- Before continuing with the job, the employee may be required to improve the general housekeeping in the work area.
Discuss Other Safety Issues of the Job
Initially, the safety intervention is focused on a particular unsafe act. Once the above steps have been followed, the leader should broaden the discussion to include other safety issues of the job. The leader would, for example, ask “Are there any other safety issues relating to your job that you would like to talk about?”
The employee could say something like “I think it would improve safety in the work area if we had better lighting.”
Importantly, the employee should be encouraged to do most of the talking, with occasional prompts and questions from the leader, who may – at times – go into coaching mode with appropriate inputs and suggestions.
Safety Interaction and Safety Intervention
Thank the Employee
During this step, the interaction or intervention is closed with the following type of statement:
- “I really enjoyed our discussion. Thanks a lot.”
- “Thanks for your time.”
- “It was good talking to you. Thank you very much.”
Some leaders may wish to conclude with a personalised “safety touch”, such as “Have a safe day.”
Record Your Findings
At the conclusion of the safety interaction or intervention, it is important to record your findings. There are two ways of doing this, namely:
- Using an IT database.
- Using a (manual) card or paper-driven system.
- Don’t take notes while doing the VFL – the formality of this process could have a negative impact on the willingness of the employee to talk freely and, ultimately, on the quality of the conversation.
Record Your Findings(continues)
- Record your findings as soon as possible after the VFL – if you leave it for too long you may forget some of the key issues/findings.
- Remember: the better the quality of your inputs relating to VFLs, the greater the quality (and usefulness) of the outputs.
- Ultimately, the data is collated, analysed and various reports are produced. From this, important information and useful trends and patterns can be discerned. Reports will show inter alia the number of VFL engagements that have been conducted by various people, the number of hours spent on this activity, and also show where you need to focus your safety efforts. Most importantly, they also highlight commitments made while conducting the VFLs. It also allows the tracking of important safety statistics and can be used to undertake meaningful comparisons. Outputs from the VFL process can also be linked to individuals’ key performance indicators (KPIs).
Follow-up on Commitments Made During VFL There are two types of commitment:
- Firstly, there are the commitments made by employees to undertake specific actions as part of the process of working safer (e.g. during Step 6b of the Safety Intervention). It is important for leaders to check up – within a reasonable time frame – on the commitments made by employees. The tone of this follow-up is especially important: leaders should come across as being caring and concerned for the safety and well-being of the employee, rather than as overly rigid and autocratic “inspectors”.
- Secondly, leaders need to also follow-up on their own commitments made during VFL. For example, the leader may have promised to send the employee a book/document on safety, or to speak to the employee’s manager about sending the employee on a safety training course. These commitments (promises) need to be recorded, and then a self- check done on what has been done or not done. To a large extent, a leader’s credibility is determined by whether he/she actually does what he/she promised to do. As always, the leader should be a role model and set the right example – coming good on commitments should be a natural part of this process.
Management Interaction
As was pointed out earlier, a VFL engagement is not intended to focus exclusively on the safety component of an employee’s job. It deals with the human/personal approach in order to establish an environment of mutual trust, respect and co-operation. VFL is firstly a “people’s approach” of which safety, health and good production are the inevitable results. In line with this, in order to show caring and personal interest, the leader could ask the following questions:
- How are you?
- How is your family?
- How is the job going?
- What can I do to help?
The above series of questions, and the conversation around them, may be termed a Management Interaction.
The sequence of the above questions is of particular significance. Also, the spirit of the engagement needs to be right: it should be done in a sensitive and caring manner, with coaching inputs when required, and – most significantly – the leader must be sincere (and be perceived as being sincere). At a later stage, there can be follow-up e.g. enquiring about an employee’s sick child. This, at the most basic level is how leaders connect with their people.
